Innovation, diversity and quality are the primary ingredients that make dining onboard the Seven Seas Voyager a thoroughly unique and consistently wonderful experience.

Bernhard Klotz, Corporate Executive Chef for Radisson Seven Seas Cruises and his team of young, creative, enthusiastic colleagues have out done themselves without having to rely on the success of a land-based, "celebrity chef." Several cruise lines have contracted with chefs from well-known restaurants to, in effect, open variations of their restaurants onboard ships. Not a bad strategy, but Radisson Seven Seas Cruises has created its own standard for the Voyager. They could easily open a restaurant in any major city and give the "celebrity chefs" a run for their money!

Launched in April 2003, this new Radisson Seven Seas flagship is the culmination of a fleet evolution that has, with each new ship, introduced an ever-higher standard for the luxury cruise market. The Voyager offers its guests no less than four outstanding ala Carte restaurants, each completely different. No early or late seating choices required on this ship. You may dine when and with whom you choose. Several of the specialty restaurants require reservations, but the main restaurant, Compass Rose offers open seating. If you are not in the mood to dine out, twenty-four hour room service is available and offers full-menu service from the Compass Rose during restaurant hours. Several evenings we had dinner served, one course at a time, in the privacy of our spacious suite.

Compass Rose Dessert

This 50,000 ton ship is striking in design and accommodates a mere 700 guests (ships of similar size can normally carry well over 1800). The four-restaurant concept was adopted from sister ship, Seven Seas Mariner. The Voyager's minimum accommodations are suites and are modeled after the same enormous 301 square feet suites found on the smaller Seven Seas Navigator. However, on this ship every suite comes with a private balcony. The bathrooms are marble-lined and have both a full-size tub for bubble baths and a separate glass-enclosed shower…talk about being spoiled!

The Seven Seas Voyager was outfitted with approximately 19,000 pieces of silver flatware, 21,500 pieces of china ware (several different designs) and 10,500 crystal glasses. In a typical week, over 1,900 different food items are provisioned. A visit to one of several galleys onboard will reveal 10 different kinds of fine salads (not just iceberg or romaine here), 19 sorts of herbs, 6 kinds of mushrooms, 6 kinds of potatoes and over 60 types of fresh fruit (an assortment of seven types of fresh berries alone!) And just for the record, guests consume on average, 220 pounds of smoked salmon, 110 pounds of Foie Gras and 22 pounds of Russian Osietre Malossol Caviar along with 700 bottles of house champagne per week...who says, "too much of a good thing is bad?"

Latitudes Mask

"The right Latitude for satisfying your mind, body and soul with music, food and friends..."

The concept of this uniquely spectacular dining venue seems simple, but is really the culmination of years of life experience. Sharon O'Connor was the first person ever to pair a cookbook with music. Trained at the renowned Amsterdam Conservatory of Music, she began her career as a cellist with the San Francisco Ballet and Opera and went on to found the San Francisco String Quartet. As a cellist at many galas and events, she always noticed how even people unfamiliar with classical music seemed to enjoy the combination of great music and fine food. O'Connor decided to come up with a cookbook that added classical music to the recipe. Her first Menu and Music volume was a cookbook of recipes from famous San Francisco restaurants paired with a recording by the San Francisco Quartet…talk about putting your dinner guests in the mood!

Now, seventeen volumes later, Menus and Music is a flourishing independent publishing company. O'Connor travels the world to research each new regional cookbook, having become an expert at adapting recipes from professional chefs for the home cook. Equal time is devoted to mixing, arranging and performing musical selections on compact disc for each new Music and Menu edition. This refreshing concept has been wonderfully adapted, along with many of O'Conners' regional recipes and music selections in the Seven Seas Voyager's Latitudes Restaurant.

Dining in Latitudes is truly a movable feast of sound, sight and taste! The evening starts at 7:30 PM when the Maitre D'Hotel, Gude Hulsmann welcomes everyone to this special musical tasting event. She introduces the Chef, Matzer Martina, a young and rather shy young woman from Germany, who shares with us a little about herself and the regional menu planned for the evening. A brilliant chef, she admits to us her anxiety at having to speak in front of an audience. She wins us over by sharing her father's advice on how to overcome nervousness. "Take a shot of whiskey, he used to say and I did tonight, twice!"

Once in the demonstration galley, which is open for all to see, Chef Martina is clearly in her element as she conducts her staff and orchestrates an incredible meal, all to the strains of the most beautiful classical and popular music. Each course is more thrilling than the last and reflects in a general way the geographic theme of the evening.

Themes change nightly and include variations on recipes from fine restaurants in different regional locations. 'Illinois and the Midwest' featured Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Bleu Cheese and Garlic Potato Chips. The 'Hawaiian Islands' night featured Seared Ahi Tuna on a bed of Warm Couscous Salad or Lamb in Thai Red Curry Sauce. 'New York' featured Veal Loin with Caramelized Onions served with Poached Pears and cabernet sauvignon syrup...anything goes in New York! And of course, 'Texas' night featured Tecate Shrimp, Queso Fresco in Poblano Crepes and Tortilla Soup from the Mansion on Turtle Creek. The whole concept is phenomenal and it works! My advice is to make reservations as soon as you board the ship!